Birth, (re)-birth and votive beds: new evidence from a Third Intermediate Period context in Theban Tomb 14

As many tombs in the Theban necropolis, the Ramesside TT 14 was re-used in the Third Intermediate Period. The tomb, excavated by the University of Pisa since 2003, housed many burials dating to the 21st and 22nd Dynasty in one of the subterranean ramifications of its sloping passage, tunnel G. Unfortunately they were found in very bad conditions of preservation, due to flash floods which invaded and filled the tunnel in three occasions. Among the few burial goods accompanying the almost entirely destroyed coffins, especially interesting was a painted terracotta set, composed by a votive bed with a female figurine and two small stelae. The set was studied by Paolo Del Vesco, member of the University of Pisa expedition at Dra Abu el-Naga, in his PhD thesis published in 2010. The possible relationship of this set with one of the deceased buried in the tunnel, a young woman pregnant whose death was probably due to childbirth, is here investigated, and the concerned conceptions discussed.